Matt Layher
Software Engineer at planetscale
Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolMatt Layher is a systems-focused software engineer with 13 years of experience building low-level networking, Linux, and embedded systems in Go and Rust. Based in Kalamazoo, he has contributed to high-profile open-source projects including WireGuard, Tailscale, Prometheus, and the Go toolchain, often implementing kernel-facing netlink/ioctl functionality and improving reliability at the OS-network boundary. His work spans from WireGuard control clients and kernel socket handling to IoT appliance tooling for gokrazy and QEMU integration, demonstrating strong skills in networking protocols, system calls, and hardware interaction. Matt frequently improves maintainability—upgrading dependencies, refactoring for correctness, and adding rigorous tests—while also delivering practical features like NFS/wifi collectors and watchdog support. Notably, he blends deep systems knowledge with pragmatic engineering: shipping production-safe changes across both cloud and embedded stacks.
14 years of coding experience
Bachelor of Science - BS, Computer Science, Bachelor of Science - BS, Computer Science at Western Michigan University
Github Skills (102)
python10
testing10
http10
databases10
bpf10
refactor10
wireguard10
system10
dns10
network-protocol10
netlink10
dhcp10
embedded10
refactoring10
sftp10
Programming languages (16)
Github contributions (5)
mdlayher/netlink
Dec 2016 - Dec 2022
Package netlink provides low-level access to Linux netlink sockets (AF_NETLINK). MIT Licensed.
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:18 releases, 13 reviews, 394 commits in 6 years
Contributions summary:Matt primarily contributed to low-level networking code within the `mdlayher/netlink` repository. Their work involved modifications to the `conn_linux` package, including adjustments to how netlink family types were handled and error messages were produced. The user's commits also added support for multi-part netlink messages and improved the reliability of the code by handling edge cases with closed file descriptors. These changes involved direct interaction with the system calls necessary to interact with the Linux kernel's netlink subsystem.
linuxnetlinkgolanggoaf-netlink
digitalocean/go-qemu
Apr 2016 - Nov 2016
Go packages to interact with QEMU using the QEMU Machine Protocol (QMP). Apache 2.0 Licensed.
Role in this project:Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:180 commits, 120 PRs, 121 pushes in 7 months
Contributions summary:Matt primarily focused on implementing features related to QEMU Machine Protocol (QMP) communication within the `go-qemu` project. They added a socket monitor for native QMP interaction, introducing `socket.go` and related test files. Additionally, the user made structural changes, including the introduction of a `Driver` interface and refactoring the `Hypervisor` structure, demonstrating a focus on modularity and improving the interaction with QEMU instances.
go-packagesqemugolang
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